Advertisement" , .. : ,:".{ :\; ; :;<A :-} i : ....4.. ."" :'; ::' ' ;:';:'::':':\>) '::;':: ':. :.:: : : ; '; (::.',":: };: :if.": ::J , ::;::: ;f ;: t::. ;:; :.{;.." : ::: /:::.\ ,;: ;;:, "" "' ::' ';:i#:'::.J:>/} '., AIJ'II}. I'i;j(?)5n;(;f if 'i;;';";;1I ini"K!" .. 'H":/ :.. ," :..{: ?: ; : ," ......... :."'" "', .. .. .;' : .. ".": ......... ,,:,::,.: ....N,::... '.' ::. :.:. ',,: :.::" :.. : " . ::.: ':'-::" :; .:."" ..: .,'Ô' -(: .. 'r.:, ..,; "., .. .< (.1: t\: .... '" TH Mat. .-YOßJlt '- -' "....... , " .\ " (:) ø ., - r'y '_U' g ._ . ø . " . A "9.&1Ii . . .at iii' ". <i&..& $ D ... . .. <i&.. "" f $ A . . a .& a e .a a .,1& e . .. 111 6! I @ a 10 . " JiI> .a . .& e . fA .. A 'IS 810 .a * A .ae.& <i&. .& . ,.=",.- ':O ô@æ&;æ: .;;;;gw.' 'nm . .:'-'- -AAc NEW YORK'.' GET REAL ART 156 FIFTH AVENUE ENTRANCE ON 20TH STREET JUNE 14-28 FOR MORE INfORMATION CALL 212.741.2278 SPONSORED BY / i or - f -:, !r. éf M _ < :' I' 1 __ ð :^>:"- "=.. .< "'-. I: , ::. :+w SIEMENS 4 ' " J ' . .:,: fjil.( .'...,.u, -< ;;" 1 '-'-'- ;'a''' , II \. J "h .._..:.... :..t,==-::-';:::;'< :-Ù( }) ,L 114 THE NEW YORKER, MAY 20, 2002 THE CURRENT CINEMA STAR STRUCK Littack oj the Clones" and "Hollywood Ending. " BY DAVID DENBY W hen the first "Star Wars" movie came out, in 1977, many of us admired it as an enormous spoof De- spite some startlingly fresh elements- enchanted landscapes, a bestiary of snouted, furred, and beaked creatures gurgling in Urdu-the movie felt like a joking homage to "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon." The white-suited mugs running up and down corridors with their little ray guns; the high-schoo l- cafeteria banter between Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford; the elocutionary stiff- ness of the serious moments; the sto- ically fourth -rate actors in minor roles- how else could one take such scenes except as intentionally banal? But those of us who enjoyed the first picture as frivolous pop spectacle must have been wrong: we quickly had our mouths washed out with texts. Commentators of every sort in- sisted on mighty significances-religio- Jungian-Wagnerian myth structures and deep-dish psychological meanings. George Lucas, who directed and wrote the movie, attained an eminence that set- tled somewhere between that of Lao-tzu and Alexander Graham Bell-the sage of Marin County as the ultimate inven- tor. He relinquished the director's reins for two movies (to Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand), but when he got back in the game himse with "The Phantom Menace" (1999), he seemed to have been listening too closely to the commentators. The picture was dead on the screen. What was enjoyably silly about the first movie was gone, and even some of the true believers noticed that Lucas couldn't tell a story clearly or with any emotional impact; that he turned two of the sexiest actors in the English- speaking world (Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor) into sticks; that the vaunted . digitized backgrounds were distant and inert, barely integrated into the movie. "Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones" is much better, though the plot is incomprehensible to anyone over the age of fourteen. The Republic? The Federation? The Separatists? The clone army? The droid army? The Siths? The Kith? The Kin? Everyone's in it, a blur of names and forces. And the actors, most of them vaguely British, intone their starched-collar lines as if they were at- tending a convention of rural vicars. But, allowing for some dull moments, this movie has considerable visual style. The spacecraft are more beautiful than any seen before-silver birds with knife-thin wings flying through slate-gray inter- stellar landscapes. The multilevel cities overflow with life, high up, low down, and everywhere in between. This time, Lucas's frame is alive, and he makes good dramatic use of such things as a stinging dark rain that douses two men as they fight on a sloping metallic plane. The droid factory, a sort of intergalactic sa- tanic mill, becomes a place of newly imagined Victorian horror. Digital inven- tion is becoming grander, wilder, more free-spirited. Lucas and his computer artists have a ball with the climactic scene in which the former queen, Sena- tor Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), and the Jedi knights Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are chained up in an arena. What starts as a grisly execu- tion (clawed and fanged creatures are let loose on them) becomes a deranged glad- iatorial combat in the sand. The may- hem is delirious fun. A liberated digital technology could send pop to giddy new heights. At the end of the movie, Christopher Lee, still The New Yorker (I SN 0028-792X), published weekly (except for six combined issues: Feb. 18 & 25, Apr. 22 & 29, June 17 & 24, Aug. 19 & 26, Oct. 14 & 21, Dec. 23 & 30) by The Condé Nast Publications Inc. (4 Times Square, N.Y., N.Y. 10036-6592), which is a subsidiary of Advance Publications, Inc. Vol. LXXVIII, No. 12, May 20, 2002. Periodical postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Authorized as second-class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, Canada, and for payment of postage in cash. Publications Mail Agreement NoA0644503. Canadian goods-and-services-tax registration number R123242885. Reg- istered as a newspaper at the British Post Office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The New Yorker, P.O. Box 37684, Boone, IA 50037-0684. PRINTED IN U.S.A.